The Earth is orbited by objects that were created as byproducts of space travel and no longer serve any useful purpose. Larger objects include spent rocket stages and defunct satellites. Smaller objects, which are far more abundant, include paint flakes, dust, solid propellant exhaust slag, nuclear reactor coolant, and fasteners. These objects are referred to as space debris.
Space debris presents a potential collision risk to manned spacecraft and unmanned satellites. Even the smaller debris, which has a size of one centimeter or less, can cause problems. For instance, unprotected spacecraft components are subject to constant wear by very small particles having a size of one micron or less.
There is a need to remove small space debris.